Strictly Internet Marketing for Fiction

Become an ‘Indie Author’ as a Marketing Tool

If you haven’t already, get a book published. If you already have, get another one published. Having a published book builds creditability: it makes people pleased they know you, it means you’re accomplished, a person of note, an expert, someone others want to meet. Marketing fiction is all about becoming someone others want to meet.

Be careful about what you publish because having a published book goes a long way toward branding you as such-and-such an author. Publish something in the field you enjoy writing or something that you’re passionate about. A farfetched example might be if you’re a ‘political thriller’ author that also loves gardening, you could write a how-to book on raising earthworms and its benefits. You don’t have to limit yourself to fiction and actually nonfiction is easier to write, easier to sell and easier to use in name building.

You’re probably thinking right now something like, “Oh sure, publish a book! Like I can just push a button and wham; I’m published!” Well, actually it can be that easy. If you’re already a published author you owe it to your agent and publisher to tell them what you’re doing. Some of them may even have a ‘first dibbs’ clause in your contract. Your agent and publisher might even want to publish your new book to help promote your current book(s). If you haven’t been published yet, then you can take the reins and do it yourself. “Now you’re telling me to become a vanity author. I’ll be ostracized! I’ll be a pariah!”

Let me say a few words about being self-published making you an outcast: Eragon, The South Beach Diet, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, The One-Minute Manager, What Color is Your Parachute, Legally Blonde and the list goes on, and on and on… If you want to see a more extensive list, check out the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame. Piers Anthony and Random House actually own Xlibris, one of the larger self-publishing houses. Piers Anthony, one of the biggest names in SF and Fantasy, has more than a dozen self-published books.

The point; the more books you have, the more people are going to want to meet you and marketing fiction is all about becoming a person large numbers of people want to meet. If you have been trying to get published or read a good deal about it, then you’ve probably come to the same conclusion most authors have: famous people and established authors have the best chance to have their manuscripts accepted, first time authors don’t stand much of a chance. That’s because publishers are business people. They want a product they know they can sell. The conclusion you need to draw from this is that you need to become famous, by any means that works.

Another benefit of having some of your works self-published is in the fact that publishers and agents are increasingly monitoring the sales ranks of self-published books. I’ve seen several authors go from being an ‘indie’ to being picked up by large and small publishers alike as well as mainstream, big name literary agents. Self-publishing is fast becoming the new submission process. Keep self-publishing on the top of your to-do list for getting your name out there, but go the traditional route with the fiction you wrote with that intention in mind.

Now, who to use for self-publishing? Clea Saal maintains a wide-ranging list of self-publishing companies on her, “An Incomplete Guide to Print On Demand Publishers” page. She hasn’t updated it to include Amazon’s Create Space, but it’s a good list of what is available.

My recommendations for self-publishing companies are:

Lulu.com and

Create Space

It would be rare for you to make a fair amount of money with any self-publishing company, but some have. Typically they are non-fiction books that fetch a high dollar, but making money with self-publishing isn’t the reason a fiction author uses self-publishing. The reason is to get your name out there as much as possible as a prolific author. More books equals more fame. Knowing you’re not likely to make any money from self-publishing, go in knowing you’re going to set you’re price as low as you can possibly stomach.

Lulu.com basic (no ISBN) is free to use where you only pay for the book when you order it. You can purchase a single ISBN that lists your imprint as the publisher in Books in Print for about a hundred bucks (US), or one that lists Lulu.com as the publisher, which makes it available in more countries. The Lulu.com forums provide a wealth of information on self-publishing. If you go thru the Lulu.com process and read enough of the forum posts, you could get the equivalent of a college education in self-publishing.

Create Space is Amazon’s free self-publishing arm, but you can’t get an ISBN assigned to the book for listing in Books in Print. Their “ISBN” assignment is an actual ISBN number that they use as their ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). Amazon owns the number, but the number is not assigned to your book as an ISBN. That means Amazon is the only place your book can be ordered. Amazon.com is the most important place to have your books listed on the Internet, so going with Create Space is a viable option. I’ve used both and I’m satisfied with the quality of both.

If you can’t get your head around going the ‘indie’ route, there is a good list of small to large publishers at Preditors & Editors, along with links and recommendations.

Labels: Get Published

# posted by Gene Curtis @ 11:21 AM